Unmanned Aerial vehicles or UAVs are widely used for reconnaissance operations. Armed UAVs are also used to carry out offensive strikes without risking injury to military personnel. Characteristically small, inexpensive, and pilot-less (i.e., unmanned cockpit), the UAV is ideal for these purposes. UAVs may be small, hand-launched vehicles as well as higher-speed, heavier machines.
Notwithstanding the low cost of UAVs compared to manned vehicles, the UAV is not considered a disposable item. Therefore, recovery of UAVs after each mission is often desirable. Recovery is relatively straightforward when the UAV is operating over land. In such situations, the UAV may be brought down on a makeshift landing field, provided such a field is available and accessible to a retrieval team. However, landing is the most difficult and dangerous of all flight operations, and in many cases is avoided in favor of other retrieval methods.
Recovery is considerably more challenging when the UAV is operating at sea or when the UAV is operating over land with insufficient space to construct a makeshift landing field due to geographic constraints (e.g., mountainous areas) or other constraints such as safety constraints (e.g. where the desired landing field location is in a hostile area). In addition, runway landings require high precision control to avoid damage to the UAV. Landing of UAVs on ships involves its own complications due to the constant sway, roll, pitch and yaw of a ship at sea, which requires an even higher precision. In fact, it is quite difficult to safely land a UAV on the deck of a ship and as such, deck landings are rarely attempted.
Due to control and space resources necessary for standard aircraft landing, current state-of-the art is to recover UAVs by flying them into a net, which can cause damage to the vehicle. Net requirements for large and small UAVs may also differ since structural strength and landing speed may differ significantly, requiring that nets be interchanged. Furthermore, landings that use nets or hooks to capture the UAV may cause damage to the UAV, thereby preventing quick re-use of the UAV for further missions. An alternative to the deck landing is the water “landing,” wherein the UAV descends into the sea. This technique has its own drawbacks, including a reasonable likelihood of damage to the UAV and risk to the recovery crew.
Alternative systems and methods for UAV recovery are desired.